Looking towards 2010, I’m trying to decide which bike to ride for next season. Most of this year I raced on a hardtail bike, while only using my FS on the few rockier courses I raced this year. I can’t decide which bike is better for me for a faster overall race time. The popular question these days seems to be which is faster, HT or FS? There are arguments for both sides, and I find myself split down the middle, so I decided to perform my own testing to see if I can determine for myself.
Here is what I’m going to do. Take three different testing days and ride both bikes back to back and record the data and perceived exertion between the two bikes. Attempt to ride varied terrain to make it fair on all types of courses. One test will be shorter laps on rolling terrain, another on a long technical climb and long descent, and the third on a longer loop with more varied terrain.
The Test Bikes: Both super fast and efficient race machines…
Yeti ARC HT
Yeti ASR FS
Last Thursday was test #1. I rode a 6.65 mile course 4 times, alternating HT and FS. I divided the course into 4 distinct segments: smooth rolling, smooth climb, rocky flat, rocky downhill, and recorded splits for eachsegment. This way I could see where I was gaining or losing time on each bike. My bike set-ups are identical except for front derailleurs (shifting issues). Here are the results:
The results were surprisingly similar for all four laps and both bikes. The only clear advantage was seen on Section 4, the rocky downhill, where the FS was faster every time. The bikes were surprisingly equal in the rocky flat section however, and the FS didn’t really lose anytime on the climbing section. Overall pretty similar and fairly indecisive in terms of which bike is actually faster. We’ll see how things go over the course of the next two tests. Stay tuned!
Social poster
Downloads
- No documents for download.
Scroll to the Post Form and leave a comment. Pinging is disabled.
i was actually admiring and wanting to follow your bike set up for your yeti arc couple months ago. And wondering how good and to get my hands on those agilis crankset you have on. Only to realize yesterday when the frame that i bid on from ebay arrived, something seems familiar. And as i suspect, as i looked through the pics that i saved for my yeti build, it is your frame that you have shipped half way around the world to jakarta indonesia. GREAT!!! hoping to win some races, this 11th of April to begin with.